“Without freedom, there is no creation.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

 "Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else have in common." -- Sarah Dessen --

 "Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." -- Confucius -- 

 "Music is an outburst of the soul." -- Frederick Delius --

 "Music . . . will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer --

Hatchet

Title: Hatchet

Author: Gary Paulsen

Rating: ★★★★★

Ages: 12 - 18+

    Back Cover Synopsis:

    Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present - and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents' divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or despair - it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.  

 "Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens." -- Maria Augusta von Trapp --

 "That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri --

 “It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.” – S.I. Hayakawa --

 “Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.”— Mark Haddon -- 

 “No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” — Mary Wortley Montagu --

 “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." -- Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood --

The Secret Garden

 

Title: The Secret Garden

Author: Francis Hodgson Burnett

Rating: ★★★★★

Ages: 6 - 14+

   Back Cover Synopsis:

     One of the most beloved children's books of all time and the inspiration for a feature film, a television ministries, and a Broadway musical, The Secret Garden is the best-known work of Frances Hodgson Burnett. In this unforgettable story, three children find healing and friendship in a magical forgotten garden on the haunting Yorkshire moors. 

 “Just because you’re a slow reader doesn’t mean you’re a bad one." -- Joe Walters --

 “Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.” -- Harold Bloom --

 “The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” -- Malcolm X --

 “A well-read woman is a dangerous creature." -- Lisa Kleypas --

 “Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work." -- Khaled Hosseini --

"I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page." -- Naomi Shihab Nye --

Animal Farm

Title: Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Ages: 15 - 18+

    Back Cover Synopsis:

    First published in 1945, Animal Farm has become the classic political fable of the twentieth century. Adding his own brand of poignancy and wit, George Orwell tells the story of a revolution among animals of a farm, and how idealism was betrayed by power, corruption and lies. 

 "Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." -- George Herman "Babe" Ruth --